As required by state law, the California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday approved the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in Avila Beach, Calif., to operate until 2030, five years beyond its previously scheduled closure. The plant will cost $6 billion to operate between 2023 and then, the commission estimated.
The commission approved the extension 3-0-1, with one member abstaining and one not present. The five-member body cleared Diablo Canyon unit 1 to operate until Oct. 31, 2029 and Unit 1 to operate until Oct. 31, 2030. Pacific Gas and Electric in early November applied to extend its two Diablo Canyon operating licenses with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Diablo Canyon has received a combined $2 billion or so in financial aid from the federal and state governments.
Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., announced this week it loaded its 2,000 canister of spent nuclear fuel some time this fall at Entergy Nuclear’s Arkansas Nuclear One plant on the banks of the Arkansas River near Russellville, Ark., about an hour northwest by road from Little Rock.
Arkansas Nuclear One uses Holtec’s MPC-37 for dry storage on site, Holtec wrote in its press release about the milestone.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy both made what Sen. Jodi Ernst’s (R-Iowa) calls her “naughty list” of agencies with lower than a 50% rate of in-person office attendance.
DOE has a roughly 20% occupancy in its Forrestal Building headquarters in downtown Washington while the NRC had a roughly 30% occupancy rate at its primary headquarters buildings in Rockville, Md., 1 White Flint North and 2 White Flint North. The averages were derived from one-week samples taken during the three-month period spanning January through March 2023.
Ernst’s list was derived from a survey by the Government Accountability Office, which surveyed the 24 federal agencies in the Chief Financial Officers Act, a financial reform for government agencies passed during the George H.W. Bush Administration. Ernst says federal agencies should increase in-person attendance or sell off the unused office space.
A 32 year-old state representative in Massachusetts, who has accused Holtec International of negligence at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station the company is decommissioning, is seeking higher office.
Rep. Dylan Fernandes on Dec. 4 announced his candidacy for a state Senate seat that represents the Plymouth and Barnstable district, according to a press release on his website, in which he said he “believes strongly in holding Holtec responsible for environmental and public health negligence.”
The government of the German state of Lower Saxony issued a decommissioning and dismantling permit for the Grohnde nuclear power plant, located in northwestern Germany about 40 miles south by road from the city of Hanover and owned by Preussen Elektra.
The plant shut down on Dec. 31, 2021. Dismantlement should be completed by 2037, according to a German-language press release this week from Lower Saxony’s Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection.
Kairos Power this week won U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval for a permit to build a 35-megawatt thermal reactor in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
The Hermes test reactor will provide something of a trial run for a larger, commercial version of the molten-salt-cooled reactor. Kairos must file another application with the federal regulator to actually operate the test version of the advanced reactor.
The test reactor will be developed on land once used by the Department of Energy for the Oak Ridge gaseous diffusion plant. “Kairos Power is thrilled to have achieved this major regulatory milestone as we make final preparations to start construction at the Hermes site next year,” Mike Laufer, the co-founder and CEO of California-based Kairos said in a Tuesday press release.
